EDUCATION “We believe that our youngest students learn best in three dimensions, with ongoing adult support as they learn not only academic subjects, but basic social-emotional skills that are best learned in person.” — Lora Nordquist, Bend-La Pine Schools interim superintendent
Lora Nordquist is the Bend-La Pine Schools’ interim superintendent for the 2020-2021 school year. The BLPS board voted to promote her to the position for one year and put the search to find a new superintendent on hold during the pandemic. Photo by Laurel Brauns
Pandemic School Year
2020-2021 may be the weirdest school year in Central Oregon since 1918.
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By Laurel Brauns
his fall, only the youngest students in the Bend-La Pine Schools district will go back to their brick-and-mortar classrooms, but COVID prevention protocols will begin the minute they step on the school bus. Most local students will not come to campus at all. At least, that’s the latest word as of this writing; most who follow the issue know things can—and have—changed many times. On July 28, Gov. Kate Brown announced a set of new rules and metrics that Oregon school districts must follow to offer in-person instruction. The announcement made BLPS’ previous pandemic plans obsolete overnight. In order to reopen school buildings to students, Brown’s metrics require that counties must have 10 or fewer COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents during the previous three weeks. Deschutes County had 54.6 cases per 100,000 for the week ending July 25. Another school requirement is that for every person who takes a coronavirus test in the county, only 5% or less of those tests may come back positive in a seven day period. The same applies at the 12 | BendNest.com
state level. Over the last weeks in July, the statewide positive test rate was 5.9%, 5.4% and 5.1%, according to the Oregon Health Authority. In Deschutes County, the positive test rate was 3.4%, 7.5% and 4.6%. The rules are less strict for students in kindergarten through third grade, so as of press time, BLPS aims to offer a hybrid in-person / online program for these students, according to Lora Nordquist, Bend-La Pine Schools interim superintendent. “We believe that our youngest students learn best in three dimensions, with ongoing adult support as they learn not only academic subjects, but basic social-emotional skills that are best learned in person,” Nordquist wrote in a statement to parents. For younger students and staff that do come to school, everyone in the building will wear masks, except those with medical exceptions. Students will stay 6 feet apart and no more sharing crayons. In some cases, office staff might set up plastic barriers at their desks or just wear large, clear face shields throughout the day.
